Penn Badgley Calls Out Netflix for Glorifying Serial Killers

Penn Badgley, who plays a fictional murderer in the hit Netflix series You, is calling out the streaming giant for glorifying serial killers.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Badgley discussed the audience’s infatuation with serial killers, particularly Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, who were portrayed by Zac Efron and Evan Peters in the Netflix projects Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, respectively.

When asked what he’d tell “people who are finding themselves attracted to serial killers,” Badgley replied: “You need to look at that, inside.”

The former Gossip Girl star continued, “Now to be fair, with our show, you’re meant to fall in love with him. That’s on us. But Ted Bundy? That’s on you! Jeffrey Dahmer? That is on you – that is on Netflix. That is squarely on the shoulders of Netflix. I don’t have answers at this point. I do, but they’re long and… yeah, it’s weird, man.”

Earlier this month, the 36-year-old actor sat down with Stitcher Studios’ Podcrushed to discuss the fourth season of You, which recently premiered on Netflix.

Badgley revealed that he asked showrunner Sera Gamble to film less sex scenes in Season 4.

“I asked Sera Gamble, [the] creator, ‘Can I just do no more intimacy scenes?’ This was actually a decision I had made before I took the show. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it publicly, but one of the main things is, ‘Do I want to put myself back on a career path where I’m always [the] romantic lead?’” he said.

He continued, “It got to a point where [I thought], ‘I don’t want to do that,’ so I said to Sera, like, ‘My desire would be zero [intimate scenes], to go from 100 to zero.’”